


The Annual Danvers Christmas Tree Decorating Party

by lizznotliz



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Christmas, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2016-12-01
Packaged: 2018-09-03 11:56:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8712877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizznotliz/pseuds/lizznotliz
Summary: "Wait, why can't Kara decorate her Christmas tree by herself?" Maggie asks Alex as they climb the stairs in Kara's building. 
"Kara doesn't have a Christmas tree," Alex explains. "Kara has five Christmas trees."





	

 Maggie doesn't really know what to expect when Kara invites her to her annual Christmas tree decorating party.

"Wait, why can't Kara decorate her Christmas tree by herself?" she asks Alex as they climb the stairs in Kara's building. Alex is holding a box of ornaments and it requires both hands so Maggie hangs onto the pocket of Alex's jacket instead. Alex keeps glancing down at Maggie's hand in her pocket and rolling her eyes, like she thinks Maggie is being kind of ridiculous, but Maggie doesn't miss the blush that crawls up Alex's neck so she hangs on tight.

"Kara doesn't have _a_ Christmas tree," Alex explains. "Kara has _five_ Christmas trees."

"Five?"

"Yes."

"Who needs five trees?"

"Kara."

"I'm serious."

Alex rolls her eyes again: "Kara's always loved Christmas, ever since she... came to live with us. It's her thing. And she has the room for five trees, so she gets five trees. Plus, it means she can have this party and everyone gets to help." Alex shakes the ornament box a little. "She always saves one just for me. You can help with that one, if you want."

Stepping inside Kara's apartment is like being assaulted by Santa Claus: all five trees are visible from the door and there is garland and mistletoe and paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. There are candles burning on the kitchen counter with competing vanilla and pine scents and a half dozen boxes open on the floor filled with ornaments and tinsel. At the kitchen table, Winn is hot-gluing something while James leans over his shoulder offering advice that the former soundly ignores. Mon-El is sitting on the floor near the television looking through a stack of Christmas movie DVDs.

"Oh dear God," Maggie mumbles, but Alex just laughs and tugs her forward.

"Kara?"

"Hey!" Kara peeks around the corner from her bedroom. "You're here! We can start!" She swoops forward and easily lifts Alex's ornament box into her own arms, then leads them to the tree by the window. It's not the tallest one in the room, but it's still a decent size. "You want this one, Alex?"

"Sure."

"Perfect!" Kara turns her smile toward Maggie, who can't help but give it right back regardless of how confused and out of place she feels. Kara has that effect. "Did you bring ornaments, too, Maggie?" 

"I, uh, didn't know that was a thing."

"That's okay," Kara assures her. "You can put up anything you want! Those boxes over there are free reign; you don't even have to stick to Alex's tree, if you don't want to. Plus, Winn brought some craft stuff so you can make an ornament, too!"

"Is that what they're doing?" Alex asks, looking at Winn and James.

"Actually, I think James is trying to stop Winn from gluing his fingers together again," Kara says. She starts walking away, frowning at the boys near the kitchen table: "Winn! _Winn!_ Just-- put the glue gun down."

"Wow," Maggie says, letting her eyes stray from the craft table to peruse the room again. "This is really something else."

"Too much?" Alex whispers and her voice wavers a little like she's worried Maggie will be scared off by her sister's enthusiasm for the holidays.

Maggie shakes her head, then tucks close to Alex's side for good measure. "I'll get used to it," she promises.

"Still like me?"

"Yeah, Danvers, I still like you."

"Okay, I'm starting the movie!" Kara calls out. Maggie watches her grab a DVD from Mon-El's stack and he squawks when the tower collapses. Alex and Maggie both laugh when he howls, _"But how can you choose?"_

"How _does_ she choose?" Maggie asks. Kara's collection of Christmas movies is extensive and impressive.

"We always start with 'White Christmas' every year," Alex explains. "After that, we take a vote."

It's fun, actually, and not quite so overwhelming once they get started. Sure, there are more decorations in this one apartment than Maggie has seen cumulatively in the last decade, but everything is carefully sorted and easy to find. She goes through Kara's ornament boxes and finds a few generic ones she likes to bring back to Alex's tree and she listens with genuine interest when Alex tells her the stories behind some of the ornaments from her childhood. Alex even lets her hang up one that her dad gave her when she was five, which Maggie is pretty sure is a really big deal, but she's trying not to act like it. James and Winn wander over from their own trees occasionally, and she fights them off when they start throwing tinsel bombs at Alex's neatly decorated tree. Mon-El is still sitting in front of the TV cross-legged, staring open-mouthed at the movie on the screen, only pausing long enough to ask Kara if this Christmas holiday is at all similar to the Daxam Moon Festival. Both Winn and Kara have tried to get him to stand up and participate in the decorating, but he's too enthralled with the movie to care.

Maggie tries going back to the fridge for another beer after a little while, but James blocks her way. Maggie smiles up at him: "You know, just 'cause you're tall doesn't mean I can't kick your ass."

"Trust me," he says, grinning, "you don't want to miss this."

"Miss what?"

"Alex!" Kara shouts. "Alex, hurry up!" James puts his hands on Maggie's shoulders and spins her around so she's facing the television; Kara is dragging Alex from her tree over to stand in the middle of the living room. Alex looks delighted until she sees Maggie watching and then she blushes scarlet and tries to back away but Kara's not having it. "No, c'mon, it's tradition."

"Kara, please--"

"We have to!"

And then they start to sing.

_Sisters, sisters_  
_There were never such devoted sisters  
_ _Never had to have a chaperone, no sir_

Alex rolls her eyes and looks at Maggie when she jerks her thumb in Kara's direction and sings, _"I'm there to keep my eye on her."_

"They do this every year?" Maggie asks James quietly. He's laughing silently beside her.

"Eliza said every year, every time they watch the movie."

"This is prime blackmail material."

"Don't even try," Winn whispers from behind them. "Kara fried my phone the first time I tried to record them."

Mon-El's head whips back and forth between the television and the Danvers sisters, unable to decide what he wants to keep watching. Alex's face is flushed the entire song and she's desperately trying to avoid looking at Maggie, who just can't stop grinning at both of them. When the song ends, Kara takes a bow while the boys clap wildly and Alex makes a beeline for her tree, hiding behind the branches.

"Nice singing, Danvers."

"Shut up."

"It was cute!"

Alex glares at Maggie from the other side of her tree, but the effect is lessened somewhat by the pink still staining her cheeks. "Yeah?"

"Very adorable," Maggie promises, crossing her finger over her heart. Alex scratches the back of her neck, still embarrassed but also a little pleased. 

"Yeah, well, just wait til James and Winn do the encore in a few minutes."

"Are you serious?"

"Kara talked them into it last year; I can't imagine they'll be able to deny her this year either."

"Speaking of people denying your puppy dog of a sister," Maggie says while Alex laughs, "where's that boss of yours. J'onn? You guys seem close; I figured he'd be here.

Alex nods: "Yeah, he came last year but things got weird."

"Dare I ask how?"

"Kara drank a lot of hot cocoa and got sugar high and withheld his Chocos until he transformed into the Grinch." Maggie collapses against the back of the couch as she laughs, shaking her head at Alex. "I swear to God, Maggie, it was the craziest thing."

"She wouldn't give him cookies?"

"J'onn really loves his Chocos," Alex declares solemnly. "Anyway, he's still a little bitter about it so he declined the invite this year."

Kara walks by and drops an antler headband on Alex's head as she passes, never saying a word. Alex doesn't even blink. Maggie thinks this might be the most fun she's had at Christmas in a while. She reaches out and tugs gently on one of the branches of Alex's tree, feeling the soft pine needles. "Hey, can I ask a question?"

"Why is my family so weird?"

"Why do you bring your ornaments here? I mean, if you put your childhood ornaments on the tree at Kara's apartment, what goes on the tree in your apartment."

The question pulls Alex up short for a moment before she admits: "Oh, I - um - I don't have a tree in my apartment."

"Why not?"

"Well, I spend most of my time here." Alex stops, then continues correcting herself. "I _spent_ most of my time here. When I wasn't at the DEO, I didn't like going home to an empty apartment that much, so I came here. And I kept my tree here."

Maggie nods. She gets that. She's spent more than her fair share of time hanging out at the precinct after hours, or rubbing elbows at the alien bar. She thinks it's nice that Alex has a place to go when she doesn't want to be lonely, but she doesn't miss the way Alex changed tenses. "You _spent_ time here."

"Yeah, I mean, I still hang out with Kara but now I... spend time with you, too."

"At your apartment." Alex's apartment is nicer than Maggie's, and closer to both of their work. Maggie thinks Alex's apartment could be to her what Kara's apartment has been for Alex, given a little more time.

"Yeah," Alex says, all soft. Maggie really, really wants to kiss her. The boys are singing now, on the other side of the couch, and when she glances back she has to bite back a laugh at the sight of James and Winn trying to teach Mon-El the "Sisters" choreography while Kara watches. Content that everyone else is distracted, Maggie leans over and kisses Alex, who hums into her mouth and settles her hands at Maggie's elbows.

"We should have a tree at your place," Maggie whispers against Alex's lips. "We should take your ornaments off this one and just put Kara's on. Take your family ones home and decorate there."

"We could," Alex's voice cracks a little, and she buries her face in Maggie's shoulder, mindful of the wound that still bothers her a little now that it's gotten cold. "We could just take this one back to my place."

"The whole tree?"

"Kara wouldn't mind." Maggie believes that. Maggie's pretty sure Kara would do anything if it made Alex happy.

"What are you gonna do: strap it to your bike?"

"Nah, I'll just make Kara bring it over." Alex's eyes grow wide. "'Cause, y'know, Winn has a van. Thing. They'll bring it over. Tomorrow, probably. Sound good?"

Maggie lets the weirdness slide, chalks it up to Winn's heavy hand spiking the eggnog. "Think we can convince Kara to throw in some mistletoe, too, while we're stealing her decorations?"

Alex grins, sly and happy and gorgeous and Maggie has to stop herself from kissing her again before Alex can speak. "Oh, don't worry," Alex says, "I think that can definitely be arranged.


End file.
